“Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus says in the Beatitudes, and today the world is very much in need of peacemakers: 56 conflicts are currently active around the world, the highest number ever recorded since the end of the Second World War. This is the figure that emerges from a recent statistic.
A man of peace: Giorgio La Pira
And so our time needs to rediscover the figure and message of Giorgio La Pira. His life stands out for the exceptional character of a man inspired by his vocation and devoted to peace and brotherhood, who knew how to combine the ideals of Catholicism with the value of tangible achievements: “Bread, and therefore work, is sacred; the home is sacred, neither can be violated with impunity: this is not Marxism, it is the Gospel.” Born in 1904 in Pozzallo (RG), in 1951 the city of Florence chose him as its new mayor, and there La Pira put into practice his highly personal, innovative political program to build a city designed for people, energetically defending the weakest, the homeless, and workers. “To hope against all hope” was the motto that always guided his work, sustained continually by a profound life of prayer. The very strong faith that always supported him also guided his political action: he saw politics as a vocation and as a service capable of contributing to a better world.
The commitment to disarmament
In this sense, his commitment to disarmament should be understood, as his extensive correspondence attests: in his letters, he very often emphasizes the need for disarmament as the only “weapon” with which to confront war.
The letter to Pius XII
In 1956, after the Suez Canal crisis, La Pira wrote a letter to Pius XII: “I will tell you immediately, Most Holy Father, what the ‘intuition’ is that has been blossoming ever more clearly in my soul for some time. This: the Mediterranean is the Lake of Tiberias of the new universe of nations: the nations on the shores of this lake are nations that worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the true and living God. These nations, together with the lake they surround, constitute the religious and civil axis around which this new Cosmos of nations must revolve: from East and West, people come here: this is the mysterious Jordan in which the Syrian king (and all the ‘kings’ of the earth) must wash themselves to cleanse themselves of their leprosy!” (May 1958).
The last letter to Andreotti
La Pira’s last letter to Giulio Andreotti is a concise and highly effective invitation to work for disarmament: “Andreotti must also commit himself, on behalf of Italy, against the neutron bomb. At any cost, we must stop arming the world in order to destroy it. Fraternally. La Pira.” This document is dated August 11, 1977, a few months before his death (La Pira died on November 5, 1977).
“We must stop arming the world”—this is La Pira’s cry, and it is a cry that still resonates powerfully, especially today: arming the world means destroying it with our own hands; instead, we must work for peace and remember that the first steps in this direction are simple and daily: a smile is enough, an outstretched hand is enough, and we are already builders of peace.
